Economic and social benefits of the drug trade

Economic and social benefits of the drug trade - longer version

The average small coca farmer can cultivate and harvest an average of almost two kilos of leaves a month, earning him at most $1,000. Out of this, he has to purchase pesticides and the chemicals for processing the leaves into coca paste, pay coca pickers to harvest and process the leaves, and possibly pay taxes to the armed group that controls that particular region. Drug traffickers purchase the coca paste from the farmers for $600 a kilo and then sell the processed cocaine to drug dealing organizations in the United States or Europe for $23,000 a kilo. The US and European drug dealers break down each kilo into grams and sell them for approximately $100 each, for a total earnings of $100,000 per kilo.